by Max White

Created on: February 24, 2008

The email attachments are flying back and forth. If you haven't received yours yet, you begin frantically contacting your friends and co-workers, searching for someone to send it along. We print out the brackets and begin to make our choices. What could all this excitement possibly be about? March Madness, of course. I've noticed that even those who have never watched a basketball game in their lives are still seen at their desks making their picks.

In my opinion, there are three types of decision makers when it comes to deciding who will win each game in the tournament. First, there are those who are very serious. It's actually a bit of a science to them. They have faithfully followed college basketball through the season. They know who the stars are and which teams have the greatest potential. The statistics are pulled out and teams are compared. The next group doesn't want to appear to be totally uneducated. For them, the best choice is to take the brackets home and ask their significant other to help them with this important decision process. The hope is that two minds can make better decisions than just one. The last group is just really in it for the fun. They sit at their desk and begin eeny, meeny, miny, moe for each of the games. The sad thing is that this group of people is often victorious in their choices. The reason they are successful is one of the reasons that March Madness is so much fun.

The tournament begins with 64 teams matched according to their ranking. The odds are certainly against the underdog. It's single elimination and that adds to the excitement. The lowest ranked teams are matched against the highest and the games begin. In the beginning, it's non-stop basketball. You can watch multiple games at once and you can watch all day. Your brackets are always close by so you can track the winners and the losers. One upset, and they do happen, and your bracket can be totally blown to pieces. For me, I count on the occasional upset because I always pick one of the underdogs to make it to the Sweet Sixteen or the Elite Eight.

My employer would not be happy to learn this, but we keep a television on for the first week of the tournament. We try not to openly stop and watch, but instead just glance at the scores as we pass by. It is said to be one of the biggest disruptions in business. You don't need a television to keep up with the games because the scores are easily obtained on the internet. I think the biggest waste of time is found in the

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